As discussions among parties to select candidates for upcoming Bihar Legislative Council elections gain momentum, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) on Tuesday made things complex for INDIA bloc by demanding one seat from the RJD.
The JD(U) also held a crucial meeting on Tuesday for selecting candidates for the polls at former CM Nitish Kumar’s residence. Several senior JD(U) leaders, including Union minister and senior JD(U) leader Lallan Singh, party’s working president Sanjay Jha and minister Vijay Chaudhary, were present at the meeting.
The biennial elections for nine Legislative Council seats are scheduled for June 18, along with the by-poll for the seat vacated by Nitish Kumar, who is now a Rajya Sabha MP.
“We supported the INDIA bloc in the Rajya Sabha elections by giving our claim to one seat. Tejashwi Yadav had promised to consider our interest in the future if we helped them. The time now has arrived for him to fulfil that promise,” AIMIM Bihar president Akhtarul Iman said on Tuesday.
“Our political aim is to defeat the communal forces. We know AIMIM doesn’t have enough MLAs to secure a Council seat on its own, and we need support from other parties. If RJD wants our cooperation in the future, it should give us an opportunity now,” Iman said.
Iman said he would talk to Tejashwi Yadav for AIMIM’s claim for one seat, nominations for which began on Monday.
The opposition INDIA bloc has 35 MLAs and this will allow the group to comfortably win one of the 10 Council seats. Its prospects for the second seat hinge on outside support from AIMIM and BSP MLAs, along with significant cross-voting from the NDA bloc. Of the nine seats going to polls, RJD holds two, including that of Sunil Kumar Singh, a close confidant of party supremo Lalu Prasad.
The Congress, which has six MLAs in Bihar Assembly, holds one of the Council seats that will be vacated on June 28, occupied by MLC Sameer Kumar Singh.
JD(U) leaders in a huddle
The JD(U) on Tuesday held a crucial meeting for selecting candidates for the Council polls, which discussed the names of potential candidates in detail. Party leaders said a consensus had been reached on the names and an official announcement would be made once the BJP finalised the candidates.
Party leaders aware of the matter said the JD(U) was paying special attention to social, regional, and caste balance in candidate selection. The party wants to select candidates who are free from controversy and who can prove politically beneficial to both the organisation and the alliance.
Party sources said one point of discussion was Nitish’s son Nishant Kumar’s candidature. A section of party leaders wanted him to be given a six-year term rather that sending him on former CM’s seat whose term would end in four years.
JD(U)’s alliance partner, the BJP, would also deliberate on the candidates with party’s national president who is to visit state capital on Wednesday. Party leaders said in all likelihood candidates would be announced a couple of days before the last date of filing nomination on June 8.
Of the nine seats, the seats held by CM Samrat Chaudhary and minister for planning and development Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha are already vacant, as both were elected as MLAs in the Assembly elections.
The seven other members whose term ends in June are Kumud Verma, Prof Ghulam Ghous, Mohd Farooq, Bhisma Sahani, Sanjay Prakash, Samir Kumar Singh and Sunil Kumar Singh.
Of the 10 seats going to polls, five seats were held by the JD(U), two each by BJP and the RJD and one by Congress. In the 75 member Legislative Council, NDA has 42 MLCs (BJP-23, JD(U) 18 and HAM-S 1), whereas INDIA bloc has 22 MLCs, Independent 6.
